How To Know a Person

I liked David’s previous book… but this one is even better. His key premise is one I haven’t found elsewhere: that conversational and social skills aren’t just innate traits—they can be learned and improved upon… It’s more than a guide to better conversations; it’s a blueprint for a more connected and humane way of living. – Bill Gates * 5 Great Things To Read and Watch this summer *Original and useful… Brooks is a chatty, likeable guide * The TLS *A hands-on guide to making meaningful human connections * Kirkus Reviews *It really is a manual for our times - and everyone should read it – Matthew D’AnconaHe writes brilliantly… charming and enthusiastic… [Brooks] offers easily digestible advice to give the reader constructive and practical tools for genuinely listening and having better interpersonal conversations * Church Times *David Brooks’s superb new book * The New European *I raced through the book, which is well-structured and engagingly written, and afterwards found myself making a greater effort in conversations. At the school gates, I swapped my formulaic how-are-yous for questions that invite a more genuine response, sometimes simply: “How’s your day been?” I became more alert to my bad habit of “topping” – when someone confides in you and you top it with a sob story of your own. I made tiny changes, things that friends would be unlikely to notice – and yet the difference was transformative – Sophie McBain * The New Statesman *How to Know A Person offers a series of well-wrought stories and punchy reflections on relationship-building * Church Times *

David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times and frequent broadcaster. His previous books include the bestsellers The Social Animal and Bobos in Paradise. His New York Times columns reach over 800,000 readers across the globe.